Storage cabinet



Jam 24, 1967 c. G. STEPHENSON STORAGE CABINET Filed April 6, 1965 mvsmoa CARL G. STEPHENSON ATTORNEYS United States Patent Ofiice 33%,262 Patented Jam. 24, 1 967 3,300,262 STORAGE CABINET Carl G. Stephenson, 2652 Paulus Crescent, North Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada Filed Apr. 6, 1965. Ser. No. 445,934 3 Claims. (Cl. 312-223) This invention relates to storage cabinets having vertically moving shelving.

In order to make use of all available space in kitchens of small houses or in small shops, it is the usual practice to erect tiers of shelves against walls or the like on which objects are stored in a vertical arrangement so as to conserve floor space. This naturally results in some of the shelves being positioned at a relatively high level which very often necessitates the use of step ladders and such in order to reach the objects placed thereon, or at a level so low that access to them requires stooping or bending.

It is appreciated that vertically movable shelving has heretofore been designed in order to overcome these objectionable features of fixed shelving. However, such movable shelving has not in the main been entirely satisfactory due to its tendency to jam and the unsightly appearance of the hoists and like required in its operation. Shelving of this nature has also not been constructed so as to provide clear unobstructed shelves.

Another objection to previously designed storage cabinets of this nature lies in the cost of their construction.

The present invention seeks to overcome the objections heretofore mentioned by providing a cabinet having vertically movable shelving so arranged that the operative portions thereof are arranged at the back of the cabinet and thus out of the way of objects to be placed on the shelves.

The present invention also provides a structure which is relatively inexpensive to produce and which is easy to operate and maintain.

The present invention comprises a vertically elongated housing having a back and front wall, said front wall having a centrally located opening formed therein, at least one tier of shelves slidably connected to said back wall for vertical movement past the opening, hoisting means located adjacent the back wall and connected to said tier to move the latter, said means being controllable to permit selective positioning of any shelf at the opening.

In the drawings which illustrate the invention,

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation partly cut away,

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged section taken on the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged section taken along line 33 of FIGURE 1. and

FIGURE 4 is a portion of the apparatus viewed in the direction of line 4--4 of FIGURE 1.

Referring to the drawings, the storage cabinet comprises a housing having a back wall 11, side walls 12 and 13, a front wall 15, and a centrally located partition wall 16 extending between said back and front walls. The housing may be a wooden structure throughout, suitably framed for strength, or it may be of sheet metal having metallic or wooden framing members.

To the back wall 11 of the housing is secured a pair of vertical tracks or guideways 17 and 18, track 17 being located midway between the partition wall 16 and side wall- 12, whereas track 18 is located midway between side wall 13 and the partition wall.

Each of the guideways is formed of a single length of sheet steel and, as illustrated in FIGURE 3 in which one 17 of the guideways is shown, are formed as a U-shaped channel,-each having. a relative wide base 20 and relatively short parallel legs 22. Extending outwardly from the outer edges of the legs are flanges 24, the included angle between said flanges and their associated legs being slight ly obtuse.

The guideways, as has heretofore been mentioned, are secured to the back wall-11 of. the housing, countersunk screws or bolts 25 being employed so that thebase'Zt) presents a smooth uninterrupted inner surface 26.

To the guideways 17 and 18 are slidably connected elongated shelf supporting members 27 and 28, respectively. Each of these members are formed of an elongated steel sheet strip, being wider than said guideways 17 and 18.

Means are provided to slidably secure each of the shelf supporting members to its associated guideway. One of these views is illustrated in FIGURE 3, which illustrates the connection between guideway 17 and supporting member 27.

It will be seen that said supporting member 27 is provided with a pair of spaced brackets 30 between which a roller 32 is rotatably secured on a shaft 35. the latter being secured between the brackets. This roller 32 is of a length that will permit it to extend between the legs 22 of the guideway 17 and contact the inner surface 26 thereof. To the supporting member 27 adjacent the roller 32. are also rotatably secured apair of bearing wheels 37 rotatably arranged on shafts 38 which are affixed as by nuts 39 to said supporting member. The wheels 37 are so shaped and disposed relative to each other so that each of them will extend behind the flanges 24 and engage the legs 22 of said guideway 17. The wheels therefore provide lateral support for the supporting member 27 and their peripheral edges also engage the flanges 24 to thereby maintain the su porting member in engagement with said guideway 17. These bearing wheels 37 may be secured to each of the supporting members at both ends thereof, or may be spaced along its length at predetermined distances depending upon the length of said supporting members and the weight they are to carry. It may, however, be necessary to use only one roll-er located at the bottom of each of the shelf supporting members. It will be a preciated that supporting member 28 is slidably engaged with guideway 18 in the s me mann r as supporting member 27 is engaged with guideway 17.

The apparatus is provided with shelves 40, one of which is shown in side view in FIGURE 2. These shelves are all of light construction and one only will therefore be described.

Each of the shelves illustrated, comprises a pair of L- shaped hangers 41, preferably formed of a stiff metallic rod bent to shape, said rods each having vertical legs- 42 and horizontal legs 43. The ends 4-4 of the vertical le s are formed having a reverse bend as at 45 and to the horizontal legs secured a shelf platform 46. v

The shelf supporting members are each provided with two rows of horizontally spaced paired apertures 47 arranged to slidably receive the bent ends 44 of the vertical legs of the hangers 41 in the manner as illustrated in FIGURE 2. This form of hanger connection is in common usage, to be found in association with peg boards and the like, and enables the shelves to be easily adjusted for vertical spa cina.

At the upper ends of the supporting members 27 and 28 are connected the ends 52 of a length of roller chain 53, said roll-er chain passing over a pair of sprockets 54 and 55, sprocket 54 being rotatably secured in the upper portion of the housing adjacent the back wall above supporting member 27, While sprocket 55 is likewise supported for rotation above supporting member 28. -Any suitable means may be employed to rotatably mount sprocket 54. One of said means, as shown in FIGURE 4, being the provision of a U-shaped bracket 57 having a shaft 58 extending between the free ends of the legs 59 and on which the sprocket is carried. The bracket 57 may be secured to the cabinet by any suitable means.

Sprocket 55 is operatively connected to a small reversible electric motor 62 which, governed in a manner hereinafter to be described, has suflicient power to rotate the sprocket 55 and thereby move the tiers of shelves.

The vertical length of each tier of shelves is such that when each of them in turn is lowered to its limit of travel near the bottom of the cabinet the uppermost of the shelves in the lower tier will be at an elevation easily accessible without stretching and, qwhen each of the shelves is lifted in turn to its upper limit near the top of the cabinet, the lowermost shelves in said lifted tier will be accessible without stooping.

In order to gain access to the shelves, the front wall 15 of the cabinet has an opening 75 formed therein extending the full width of the cabinet, and of a depth sufficient to provide access to the lowermost of the shelves of each tier when the latter is raised to its upper limit of travel and to the uppermost shelves of the tier when the latter is lowered to its lower limit of travel.

It is preferred that said cabinet be provided with doors 76 which may be swung over the aperture to hide the contents thereof from view.

The electric motor 62 may be. of any known reversible type, and is secured by brackets 78 adjacent one, 55, of the sprockets. The motor is geared to the shaft 58, the latter being hon-rotatably connected to said sprocket 55. This electric motor is connected by leads 79 to a source of power, not shown, through a two-way switch 80 which is located in the cabinet adjacent one tier 81 of the shelves and which, when operated between its operative positions, serves to reverse the direction of rotation of the motor. As this type of switch and the electrical cir cuitry involved are well known, it is considered that detailed illustrations and description thereof is unnecessary.

It is, however, to be understood that the switch 80 shall be operated between its two positions by a vertical swingable switch lever 83, and the tier 81 of the shelves to which it lies adjacent shall be provided with a pair of vertically spaced lever operating fingers 84 and 85. These fingers are so located that finger 84 will engage and change the operating position of the lever 83 when the tier moves to its upper limit of travel to reverse the direction of rotation of the motor 62, whereas finger 85 is positioned so that it will engage and reposition lever 83 when said tier is lowered to its lower limit of travel. It will be seen that this switch arrangement will therefore assure operation of the shelves within a predetermined limit of travel.

The electric motor is also controlled by a simple on and off switch 86 in thecontrol circuit which may be located at any convenient location on the outside of the cabinet.

It will be seen that the cabinet provided is of very simple construction and, if the tiers of shelves are of equal weight, very little power will be necessary to move them as they will counterbalance each other. It will also be seen that the connection between the supporting members and guideways is such as to result in very little friction during movement of the supporting member, yet will provide adequate support for heavily loaded shelves.

It is further to be noted that the location of the roller chains, sprockets, etc., against the back wall of the housing, provides a clear unobstructed space to the sides of and at the front of the shelves, and which therefore results in .a cabinet having a pleasing appearance and easy accessibility.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. A storage cabinet comprising a vertically elongated housing having a back and front wall, said front wall having a centrally located opening formed therein, a pair of elongated vertically extending U-shaped guideway members secured in side by side relationship to the housing adjacent the back wall, each of said guideways being provided with an opposed pair of vertically elongated laterally extending flange elements, an elongated vertically disposed shelf supporting member arranged adjacent each guideway, rollers secured to the supporting members arranged to extend behind the flange elements of the guideways so as to slidably connect the former to the latter for vertical movement thereon, a plurality of shelf members, means for releasably and adjustably connecting the shelf members to the shelf supporting mem bers, hoisting means located adjacent the back wall and connected to said supporting members to move the latter, said hoisting means being controllable to permit selective positioning of any shelf at the opening.

2. A storage cabinet comprising a vertically elongated housing having a back and front wall, said front wall having a centrally located opening formed therein, a pair of elongated vertically extending U-shaped guideway members secured in side by side relationship to the housing adjacent the back wall, each of said guideways being provided with an opposed pair of vertically elongated laterally extending flange elements, an elongated vertically disposed shelf supporting member arranged adjacent each guideway, said shelf supporting members have at least two rows of vertically aligned horizontally paired openings formed therein, rollers secured to the supporting members arranged to extend behind the flange elements of the guideways so as to slidably connect the former to the latter for vertical movement thereon, a plurality of shelf members, hanger elements secured to each shelf member extendible through any pair of openings for releasably connecting said shelf members to said shelf supporting members, hoisting means located adjacent the back wall and connected to said supporting members to move the latter, said hoisting means being controllable to permit selective positioning of any shelf at the opening.

3. A storage cabinet comprising a vertically elongated housing having a back and front wall, said front wall having a centrally located opening formed therein, a pair of elongated vertically extending U-shaped guidc way members secured in side by side relationship to the housing adjacent the back wall, each of said guideways being provided with an opposed pair of vertically elongated laterally extending flange elements, an elongated vertically disposed shelf supporting member arranged adjacent each guideway, said shelf supporting members have at least two rows of vertically aligned horizontally paired openings former therein, rollers secured to the supporting members arranged to extend behind the flange elements of the guideways so as to slidably connect the former to the latter for vertical movement thereon, a plurality of shelf members, hanger elements secured to each shelf member extendible through any pair of openings for releasably connecting said shelf members to said shelf sup-porting members, a sprocket wheel rotatably secured to the cabinet above each guideway member, a chain passing over the sprocket wheels and connected to the shelf supporting members, and an electrically driven reversible motor connected to one of the sprocket wheels for rotating the latter so as to permit selective position ing of any shelf at the opening.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,854,756 4/1932 Muller 3l2272 2,758,901 8/1956 Cole 3122'72 X 2,910,335 10/1959 Wales 312306 FOREIGN PATENTS 815,918 7/1959 Great Britain. 518,930 3/1955 Italy.

CHANCELLOR E. HARRIS, Acting Primary Examiner,

F. DOMOTOR, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A STORAGE CABINET COMPRISING A VERTICALLY ELONGATED HOUSING HAVING A BACK AND FRONT WALL, SAID FRONT WALL HAVING A CENTRALLY LOCATED OPENING FORMED THEREIN, A PAIR OF ELONGATED VERTICALLY EXTENDING U-SHAPED GUIDEWAY MEMBERS SECURED IN SIDE BY SIDE RELATIONSHIP TO THE HOUSING ADJACENT THE BACK WALL, EACH OF SAID GUIDEWAYS BEING PROVIDED WITH AN OPPOSED PAIR OF VERTICALLY ELONGATED LATERALLY EXTENDING FLANGE ELEMENTS, AN ELONGATED VERTICALLY DISPOSED SHELF SUPPORTING MEMBER ARRANGED ADJACENT EACH GUIDEWAY, ROLLERS SECURED TO THE SUPPORTING MEMBERS ARRANGED TO EXTEND BEHIND THE FLANGE ELEMENTS 